REPUDIATING VANDALS, BRICK BY BRICK.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

CHATSWORTH - This one's to the vandals who busted up the World War II memorial over at the Chatsworth Train Station the other night.

Low blow, guys. Real low.

Maybe you can get away with defacing walls with graffiti, and even throwing trash cans on the tracks to get your kicks watching them flattened by a passing freight train, but when you start desecrating our war memorials, you're cutting into the bone marrow of this country.

Into its very life and soul.

Not that you guys give a damn, but that 4-foot granite memorial you losers tried to bust out of its foundation to - what, throw out on the train tracks? - is a good friend to a lot of people in this Valley.

It's their buddy or loved one who never made it home - a generic grave marker where people come to sit and pay their respects.

It's where marching bands, color guards and old vets come every Memorial and Veterans Day to celebrate the memory of every soldier who fought in every war.

You guys treated this memorial like a piece of trash, something to vandalize and bust up for kicks.

Bert Dorosy and his buddies at Chatsworth Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9266 went hat in hand back in 1995 to make this memorial a reality.

When I talked to some of the guys this week they said they were hoping the vandals were just a bunch of young, stupid kids who didn't know any better.

Not old enough yet to have developed a sense of history and pride about this country, some kind of national conscience.

It makes them sick to think it could be any other way. Makes them mad, too.

To bust out chunks of that memorial and try to pry it out of its foundation in the middle of the night when no one was around, you vandals had to stand under a 40-foot-tall flagpole.

All you had to do was look up, and you would have seen the American flag that flies from the top of that pole 24 hours a day. It's illuminated throughout the night. You couldn't have missed it.

With the wind we've been having at night, that flag must have looked beautiful up there, shining brightly in the dark as it crackled in the cold night air.

But you guys weren't looking up, you were looking down with a shovel in your hand.

Was there at least a twinge of guilt in what you were trying to do to one of our most cherished monuments, a war memorial? Did you stop short of finishing the job because someone was coming, or was it something else?

Just in case you care, which I doubt, Dorosy and his VFW buddies busted their butts seven years ago to make sure that memorial was ready for Veterans Day 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II ending.

They don't have a lot of money, these guys. Most of them live on fixed incomes - Social Security checks and a small pension. They couldn't afford to underwrite the $8,000 to $10,000 the memorial and flagpole was going to cost.

Besides, their VFW post was just hanging on, down to a handful of old vets still active and healthy enough to keep it alive. Barely.

But don't be fooled. Inside, they're still tough as nails, tough as the day they went off to fight a war for this country.

They were determined to make this memorial happen for their community because all people should have a place to sit, remember and pay their respects to the past - to an old service buddy or loved one.

The vets spent months knocking on doors from City Hall down to local business merchants and residents. When they were done, they had gotten more than 40 people and local businesses to write out checks as big as $1,000 and as small as $20 to make this memorial a reality.

And then, they folded their tent. Closed their doors because they were old and tired, and there were not enough men showing up at Chatsworth VFW Post 9266 anymore.

That memorial you vandals busted up the other night was the last hurrah of VFW Post 9266.

Bert and a few of the other members moved over to Woodland Hills VFW Post 11508, which welcomed them with open arms and added the name Chatsworth to its letterhead.

So, that's the story, how this war memorial you vandals were trying to destroy came to be, just in case you care.

The vets now find themselves having to go hat in hand again, knocking on doors to ask the public to help maintain the memorial and defray some of the cost of repairing the damage.

They've come up with a great idea, a brilliant idea, really. For $80, people can buy a brick with their family name or the name of an old war buddy or loved one etched on it with a few words.

The bricks will be set in concrete at the foot of the war memorial, surrounding it - a lasting tribute for everyone to see.

The VFW vets are hoping to sell 400 of them. So far, they've sold 20.

I've got a feeling, though, that's about to change. I know the people who read this column. They're not about to let some vandals beat some vets.

If you're interested in buying a brick, which is tax deductible, write to Richard Healey, quartermaster of VFW Post 11508, 8501 Lubao Ave., Winnetka, CA 91306, and he'll send you over an order form so you can fill in what you want etched on the brick.

Or you can pick up a form at the Whistle Stop Coffee Shop at the Chatsworth Train Station, 10040 Old Depot Plaza Road, Chatsworth, and visit the war memorial yourself.

Maybe sit for a while and pay your respects.

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Photo:

Bert Dorosy and buddies at Chatsworth Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9266 helped create the memorial vandals knocked over and damaged.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer